Romans 1.1-7
In this very beginning of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we read what we often forget—that Paul was called first to be set apart for the gospel of God. Paul clearly sees the gospel of Jesus Christ as a mission. According to Paul, just as Moses and the prophets were God’s word to the Israelites, Jesus is God’s word to the Gentiles—to the non-Jews. As God had already spoken to the Israelites through the prophets, Paul now experiences God speaking to the rest of the world through Jesus Christ.
In the narratives of Advent and Christmas, we are made very aware of Jesus’ Jewish identity and his Palestinian birth—his connection to the land, to the town of David, Bethlehem. And so we are reminded, on the eve of the birth of our savior, that we, too, are shoots from these same Jewish and Palestinian roots.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul is working out a dilemma. Does Christ’s coming mean that the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people? By failing to receive Christ, have the Jews forfeited their place with God? Paul answers with certainty, “No.” Just as the Israelites came to faith in God through Moses, so now the Gentiles have been invited to faith in God through Jesus Christ. His conclusion becomes most clear in chapter 11, when he concludes that “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” (v. 29). Through God all things are possible.
Just as God led the people of Israel through the Red Sea to the promised land, so God continues to offer redemption and hope through Christians today.
Most of us have grown up with the myth that enmity has existed for centuries between Jews and Palestinians. Therefore, there is not really much we can do—they will never get along.
This is not the reality I have seen on the ground in the West Bank and in Israel, where I have met many people working to bring reconciliation When I was traveling with a Compassionate Listening delegation in May, we met with Sami Awad, Executive Director of the Holy Land Trust. We sat mesmerized as he talked about his work to reconcile Palestinians and Israelis.
He told us the story of his father, who was forced to leave his home in Jerusalem in 1948. Sami’s grandfather was killed by a sniper. His grandmother, unable to provide for her children, placed Sami’s father in an orphanage, where he grew up in a building overlooking his old house; he was nine years old. Although Sami’s father could have grown up resentful of the soldiers who killed his father, his mother was careful to instill in her children the value of forgiveness and reconciliation. She taught her children, “If the Israeli soldier who shot your father knew who he was, he would not have pulled the trigger.” Sami lives by his grandmother’s values today.
Seeing the need to recognize the holocaust as a human tragedy, he has traveled to Auschwitz twice, spending ten days there each time, in prayer, in meditation and experiencing the death camps. Watch a 5-minute YouTube video of him as he tells us his story: http://leahdgreen.blogspot.com/2010/05/sami-awad-on-auschwitz-fear-and-meaning.html
If you have a chance to see it, his story is also featured in the film, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” http://littletownofbethlehem.org/
God of all hope, in your son’s death on the cross, you showed us true reconciliation and the way to peace through forgiveness. Help us to follow in his way of peace, building bridges where there is enmity and nurturing understanding where there is fear. Amen.
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